278 Mr. William Pitt on the Production and 



In spite, however, of the peculiar advantages of England, it appears to me clear, 

 that if she continue yearly to increase her importations of corn, she cannot ulti- 

 mately escape that decline whicli seems to be the natural and necessary conse- 

 quence of excessive commercial wealth; and the growing prosperity of those coun« 

 tries which supply her with corn must in the end diminish her population, her 

 riches, and her power. I am not now speaking of the next twenty or thirty years, 

 but of the next two or three hundred. 



He further says, " When Rome adopted the custom of importing all her corn, 

 and laying all Italy into pasture, she soon declined in population ;" and again, " In 

 the history of the world, the nations whose wealth has been derived principally 

 from manufactures and commerce, have been perfectly ephemeral beings, compared 

 with those the basis of whose wealth has been agriculture." 



Without entering farther into this question, it certainly seems desirable, that a 

 country possessing extensive territory, should endeavour to supply itself with the 

 absolute necessaries of life ; and rather depend upon importation for its superfluities 

 and luxuries, than its means of subsistence. 



The state of facts, respecting the export and import of corn, appear to be nearly 

 as follows : 



That for ten years preceding 1 750, the bounty paid on exportation, on an 

 average exceeded £. 1 50,000 per annum, which, at /^ 5. per quarter, must have been 

 600,000 quarters, and, at 3 quarters per acre, must have been the annual growth of 

 200,000 acres. I am aware that the whole of this was not wheat; but as in the 

 inferior sorts of grain the bounty was less, and the acreable produce more, the 

 bounty upon the growth of an acre of each might be nearly the same; I will 

 therefore suppose the bounty to have operated as 15*. upon the growth of every 

 acre exported. 



Dr. Smith says, the exports were the one-and-thirtieth part of the annual produce ; 

 upon this data, the growth of all sorts of grain in England, at that time, was 

 6,200,000 acres. It aLso appears, from Dr. Smith, that the real quantity of grain 

 exported during that period amounted to upwards of 800,000 qrs. per annum, 

 upon the average : as I cannot suppose the average produce of that time to have 

 exceeded ^^ qrs. per acre, the export must have been the annual produce of about 

 230,000 acres of land. 



For ig years, ending 1765, the export of grain amounted to the average, per 



